/etc/motd update

[Warren Block]

On Wed, 13 Aug 2014, Brooks Davis wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 02:23:00PM -0600, Warren Block wrote:
>> The existing /etc/motd breaks many of our document rules and has some
>> weird language constructs.  The current version in HEAD:
>> http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/etc/motd?view=co
>>
>> Here is a rewrite.  URLs are now the only thing on a line, instead of
>> inline and hard to locate.  No contractions are used.  Odd phrases are
>> rephrased:
>>
>> Here is the proposed new version and a diff:
>> http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/motd/motd
>> http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/motd/motd.diff
>
>> Making it clear that commands are to be typed without quotes is a little
>> difficult.  This file is plain text, so no out-of-band highlighting is
>> available.  ANSI colors or bold could be used, but the terminal is not
>> guaranteed to be able to display them.  The only really clear way would
>> be to put commands on a separate line, indented.  That takes up more
>> space, maybe not a big deal.
>>
>> The other issue is whether we should mention the search box on the web
>> page, which is not very effective at finding things.
>>
>> Comments and suggestions welcome.
>
> My first thought was that it's definitely better, but too long since 25
> rows of text won't fit on the default console.
>
> My second thought was that a better approach might be to replace most of
> the contents with a URL like:
>
> http://freebsd.org/getting-started-with-freebsd-11
>
> and a reference to a local copy of the content a release time.  That
> would allow unlimited formatting, let us target different user
> audiences, and let us improve the online version over time.

That would allow much more vertical space in the actual "intro" file, 
and clearer explanations:

Type
   man man
for an introduction to manual pages.

Where should the intro file be stored?  /usr/doc is not always present.